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Well, I have an update from the story I put up yesterday dealing with Dante's Inferno, Booth Babes, and a contest gone wrong at the San Diego Comic Con. Apparently the reason why I needed to follow @danteteam on twitter is so they could send me a private message about being 'randomly' selected to be a runner-up for their contest. It's like Publishers Clearing House just knocked on my door!!!

Apparently I would get a $240 gift certificate to the EA Store and a limited print t-shirt for being selected; however, there was also a large legal document they sent for me to sign to give them permission to have my soul or something, as well as the fact that I only entered the contest to be cheeky. So I decided to send them an email back, since I now had the PR and EA representative's emails, I told them that I'd let you guys enjoy the email too, so enjoy:

While I'm grateful for the team 'randomly' choosing me as one of the runners-up for your #Lust contest, it seems as though the internet has once again made it difficult to relay tongue-in-cheek humor to the desired recipients. I became aware of your contest through one of the many blogs decrying it. I think the contest was somewhat sexist, misogynist, and exploitive, especially since you were sending fans upon ANY booth babe at SDCC; however, as a gay man, I also saw this PR stunt as missed opportunity that resulted in what appears to be a narrow minded view as to what your game's audience can truly be. While I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, this stunt projected a view of your target demographic as lustful heterosexual males, when in reality a larger and larger portion of the gaming population are women and LGBT people.

Funny thing is, just last weekend in the Bay Area, EA corporate put on an event with GLAAD [www.glaad.org] in which they were discussing homophobia in online communities. One of the major points brought up was that many game publishers/developers still have this "boys club" idea of who buys and plays their games. The truth is that there are many people out there that don't care to be in that type of boys club (as I'm sure you notice from all the negative tweets you got) and dislike that stereotype being thrown in their faces.

From that viewpoint, I sent in my photo of me with a burly man that I took at PAX last year as a humorous portrayal of how your contest is not only misogynistic and demeaning to the women that attended the conventions, but also to anyone that doesn't follow the hetero-normative ideal. I know booth babes (and guys) get paid to man those booths and deal with gawkers, but there are also PR, production, and development people at those booths caught in the crossfire of dealing with people trying to do "acts of lust" with them to win your contest.

Again, while I am grateful that you have chosen my submission as a runner-up, I feel I must decline your free t-shirt and $240 gift certificate to the EA Store. Instead of giving that $240 away, I would prefer the money to be used in the following ways:

1) A new sexual-harassment training video/seminar
2) Another PR team to try to spin this whole debacle of a contest into a positive light
3) A direct phone line to EA's legal depart to use before you try anymore PR stunts
4) Six copies of your game when it releases, since I know you've lost at least that many fans with this stunt
5) Or the next time you go to Hooters (for the wings, of course), leave a $240 tip for your waitress in a karmic way of balancing out what has been done to the booth babes of SDCC due to this contest

I realize that promoting a game based upon what has been a historically controversial literary work presents itself with many challenges, but between the "fake" protesters at E3 and this latest stunt, the game isn't just setting a poor example of itself but gaming as a whole. The subject matter of this game deserves better treatment and respect from everyone involved.

Thanks for the response though, and there is a part of me that hopes I wasn't just "randomly chosen" and that you guys wanted to include my picture to help save face. That maybe on some level all the negative press and feedback actually got back to you guys and you were trying to include more than just guys drooling over girls; however, I have to decline use of my image or name for the contest.

Oh, and I'll be sharing this email with our readers at GayGamer [www.gaygamer.net], a site I invite you to come and explore as perhaps a first step in getting to know your many customers outside of the fratboy demographic this contest was seemingly designed to attract.

Hopefully I got my message across, but we'll just have to wait and see. Until then feel free to add any more uses for the $240 in the comments section.

I love this blog post! And I completely agree. They have also lost a sale with me and several other women as well. I mean, it's not only degrading to the women booth babes (never mind booth babes being degrading enough), but they also isolated and disregarded any other fans besides heterosexual males, excluding hetero and homosexual females and homosexual males. As a female game developer and gamer myself, I am appalled at EA's marketing tactics for this game so far (like their staged fake "religious protest" of the game earlier) and as a member of the game developer community I am ashamed of them.

aw i didnt think it had to be worded so strongly... i mean it's just a stupid pr stunt. it's purpose was to get you to buy the game, so if you dont like then dont buy the game, which for them means MISSION FAILED.

Fantastically done! A classy move where you got your point across without being overly aggressive.

Being a Christian, I was too disgusted with their first stunt and vowed not to give them anymore press. For that reason, I am not going to repost this story. Please know, though, that I root for you and hope that they take this to heart. ^_^

Sorry I really just have to ask, about this whole "debacle". what are you upset about? Is it the lack of equal chance of objectification from LGBT community and women or are you upset at the objectification that's been going on for years at not only this con but cons around the world. Because it just comes off as a need to push an agenda. I never hear anyone saying why are those cos players dressed like that or I can't believe those boothbabes didn't refuse the job, no it always seems to be the companies fault, and to be perfectly honest it all seems amazingly hypocritical to me. If your going to point fingers I say point one at everyone involved. Also as a gay man and a bear I know for a fact the levels that we objectify other men, so at the end of the day your reply seems a little grabby and ultimately comes off more like the pot calling the kettle black.

On behalf of someone who knows she can't attend game conferences because she'll get sexually harassed and/or assaulted no matter what she wears or who she goes with (husband and fellow gamer, three year old niece, herd of large male friends), thank you.

I'd love to hang out a convention with my sweet Ariel LoK costume and Raziel rag doll, take my niece to see Mario and Link and listen to the panels but I don't want to be sexually traumatized for it. I avoid conventions, most web pages and discussion groups and play games with close friends and loved ones only. I do have some awesome friends and an amazing soon-to-be spouse to game with, but it sucks being isolated by the larger community as you more than already know. Thank you Thank you so much.

Kudos for the rail against EA and their (continuing) slide into marketing-hell for a game that has failed to distinguish itself from a number of God of War-style clones, and seems to need 'controversy' to sell. Apart from the literacy bastardization of a classic work, EA continues to pathetically drum up 'rage' to get their product into the news, using reliable sell-outs like Kotaku, Joysiq, and any number of lapdog blogs who have been more than eager to sell their digital souls for a press release.

I applaud Gay Gamer for taking this stance and throw full support behind you guys. However, does it not seem somewhat disingenuous that your website continues to promote "men in underwear" ads and gay-sex hook-up portals? Just saying, it might be time to go all the way and break ALL the stereotypes while you're at it :)

I don't know what you have been led to believe, but what you fear doesn't match up to my experience. I have been attending SF, comics, and gaming conventions, often by myself, for most of my life. I've never been "sexually traumatized" at one, ever, nor have any of my female friends. Your definition of trauma may vary, of course; mine requires something beyond lame pickup lines.

Online, I've been active in numerous forums and blogs, and I play games with a whole world of random strangers. My WoW guild doesn't care if I pee standing up and sitting down; all they care about is that I put out good DPS and make awful puns in guild chat. They're not "close friends and loved ones" either; they're just an ordinary bunch of players whose guild recruiting message rolled across my screen one day (though some of them have become good gaming friends). Assuming you don't do something really stupid like giving out your real-life contact information (would you hand it out at the bus station?) there are few if any game (or at least gamer) problems that can't be handled with a suitable application of /ignore.

In short, you're not "being isolated by the larger community"; you're being isolated by yourself.

Well, if no one else is going to say it, I will:
Two Hundred
and Forty Dollars
Worth of Puddin'.

God bless The State.

To add to the discourse, EA is just doing what they've been doing all along and what Akklaim did before them: push the envelope of sex sells, spark debate and 'controversy', then go "What? You're offended? Talk amongst yourselves! Go over it again and again while mentioning our game on your blogs as any press is good press."

I think they're right to an extent that the somewhat mediocre-looking game is getting additional tangential coverage, but the side effect will be that eventually people will take them less seriously and see them as douchebags. Until they inevitably have to form a response like they had to for EA Spouse - "Oh, those marketing people have been sacked. Here's new marketing people. We totally learned our lesson. We'll behave now for a couple years."

First off this contest was focused on their largest market demographic; which just happens to be what you call the "fratboy demographic." This and their last pr stunt have created a great buzz for the game and guess what you can bet your ass that they will take it to another level the next chance they get. Anyone thinking that this stunt will cause people to get fired are just in denial. If anything these people are getting raises. Sites like yours and so many others, including true press sites, are creating great buzz for this game before its even released.
To all the people getting butt hurt by this stunt what is your real problem? That it objectifies women? Lol, apparently you have never played any videos games, watched a television show, watched an ad before, or been outside in the real world.

Please, cry me a river about how this "stunt" is sexist, misogynist, and whatever else. If you don't like it, don't play it, don't support their games, and most importantly, don't enter their contests. Seriously, get over it! Hot booth babes (and dudes) are setting themselves up for "harassment" so once again, I beg of you, GET OVER IT!

So what's the story behind the photo from last year that you sent in for the EA contest? Why were you objectifying and touching that fellow in your photograph?

Was his job to let people touch him and get their photo taken with him or was it to give people airbrushed tattoos to promote a game? I wonder if his contract stated "Must let gay men wrap their arm around your shoulder and pose for photos making your feel like a piece of meat."

YAY! I salute you sir. As a "booth babe" at many a convention and an active member in both the gay and gaming communities in my town of San Francisco, it is so heartwarming to see such a well-written defense for both. Moreover, I am touched by such a passionate plea for better marketing! I have blogged over and over on various sites about this. From Game Stop's Madden: Girls Night In to IGN/District 9's "Men 18-24 only Comic Con Contest" I have to administer my palm to my face every time I see the respective "marketing teams" attempt to reach their so-called "target audience." It's sad and insulting, but--hopefully--with impassioned and educated responses like this, changes will be made...for the better.

>a humorous portrayal of how your contest is not only misogynistic and demeaning to the women that attended the conventions

Picking up garbage is degrading.

Cleaning a public toilette is demeaning.

Protecting women from imaginary dragons is extremely demeaning.

Two adults exchanging cash for agreed upon terms is ... well, a contract, and if the terms offend, no one is forcing them to do it.

I'm married with 5 kids, but for the right amount of money (and not an unrealistic amount like a billion dollars), I'd be a booth bear *and enjoy all the attention*. What's the going rate for a booth bear? $10-15 bucks an hour? I'd still do it for funsies.

Booth babe-ing pays well. People need money. Booth babe contracts usually do NOT, I repeat, do NOT, in my experience, declare that the booth babe has to allow *anyone* who wants to to take a picture with him/her. They are given a right to refuse if you are a groping ass or want them to pose in ways that they are not wanting to.

Booth babe contracts generally are for the model in question to be eye-candy, and they don't need to allow people to grope and touch them, or harass them for photographs. They're models. Like, you know, the kinds of models you might see anywhere else, at any other non-convention event?

The problem is there are the assholes who think that it's their spaghetti-monster-given-right to do more than look. Because any woman (or guy) who is willing to wear skimpy clothing is TOTALLY doing it just for THEM and is subject to all whims that arise from that skimpy clothing.

Most booth babes I've run into don't mind the more complimentary comments, or friendly conversation/requests for photos. Sadly, they get a lot of absolutely skeevy "compliments" and really obnoxiously rude demands for photos, and even groping attempts. And no, by allowing the less insane attentions, they are not ASKING for the other kinds.

EA's wording, despite their fine print, made it sound, to those who already want excuses to be absolute jerks, like a sign from on high that it's totally COOL of them to be jerks, so they should go forth and be pushy if they want to!

Which is *exactly* what any large gathering of people needs.

Also, even if EA told its booth babes that they HAD to let people take photos, EA's stupid contest made EVERY booth babe in the convention also subject to their rules without a contract. Which is compound stupid.

And I'd say that the whole fiasco was also, yes, demeaning for non booth-babe female attendees, because treating women like meat tends to spread, and hey, also, I'd suggest that being obviously some kind of bizarre fringe market that a large gaming company doesn't care about is a little demeaning if they're coming to a convention you do actually attend and care about.

It is one thing to denfd your ad because it is doing its purpose. It is another thing to be enough of an asshole to think that because there are sexist and degrading videos games, television shows, ads, and real world behaviour, your publicity campaign won't mind.

It's like saying that killing someone isn't bad and shouldn't be shocking because lots of people are killed everyday anyway.

Nice, I have come to hate the entrenched sexism and homophobia that has become the hallmark of the gaming industry. I hope this fail really hurts EA, maybe costs them some money and puts some of their marketing people out of a job.

Disclaimer: Please note that the "EA Support" post is not actually from EA. There isn't a single company on Earth that would be dumb enough to write something like that, much less as an public response to a controversy.

You guys DO realise that competitions like these are pretty much designed to do one thing and one thing only?

To get people talking about the game.

It's promotion.

Whether or not this person was randomly or specifically picked to be the runner up contest winner is pretty much irrelevant as they pretty much acknowledged the submission in the first place. I would say they pretty much (innuendo definitely not intended) took one on the chin and accepted that not all gamers fit their LARGEST DEMOGRAPHIC.

What strikes me as exceptionally annoying is that Pixel here decided to use the second place prize as a soapbox to pontificate on issues don't really do much but serve as a wet blanket for all. You can decry the contest and go on about how this or that is exploitation... but in the end, it really doesn't matter to EA anyway. Why?

Because you're still talking about the game and the contest around it. They won, if you thought this was a battle that was being fought... they still won. You're talking about the game.

Being a gay gamer myself, I really don't give a shit about the spectacle and means of advertising. I feel no need to act like a repressed minority (a self inflicted form of persecution) because they're not catering specifically to me. I will seek out and find games that are interesting to myself.

The big thing that people need to accept is that sex is a form of entertainment and that sells. Whether it is the sole form of entertainment (porno) or being used to sell other forms of entertainment (promotions like this for the game itself)... it worked. We're all talking about the game, here.

Last, but not least... the hypocrisy is astounding. The photo was taken before the contest. A photo of a gay guy standing next to a booth 'babe', a 'babe' that a number of people have said was a hot guy... and you're commenting on the nature of the contest, gawkers and such. Way to go, man. You defeated your own point. You also complained about stereotyping while... using stereotypes in your own words.

More than anything else, the rant comes off as someone who's bitter that he didn't win first place.

You all can talk about how much you dislike the promotion, the methods used and how you don't care for it all... none of that matters. You're still talking about the game. If they hadn't pulled a stunt like this one, the game itself probably would have been forgotten like any other release that didn't do something to stand out.

And they did something on top of all of this to stand out even more, to make more people talk about the game.

They picked a gay guy who posed next to an attractive, muscular guy. Color me shocked. Another gamer who posed next to something they were attracted to.

Objective achieved. No matter how many people complain about this contest, the people behind it are getting raises.

Why must we do this, as a whole group, ourselves? add labels, protest words, etc. Figure out what types of people this or that offends.

The EA stunt is not only offensive to members of groups other than heterosexual males, but to heterosexual males as well.

But really, I am not offended. There is no point. On the internet, some large demographic gets offended every twelve seconds (random number). Many of those times I am either a part of that demographic, or empathetic to my fellow neighbor's plight. Then, there is an uproar, and everyone complains, and everything's falling through the cracks, and they issue a non-apologetic apology. And the next day, it's all fine, it's all good. All is forgotten, we love them now, since we've moved on to this day's enemy. And so it goes, on and on.

Wake the f*** up people, they don't care, none of them. They don't care about you loving them, your loyalty, etc. The only reason they want you to love them is because it's another string that ensures more income. That's the reason for every good deed, donation and so on. It's a lot easier to forsake a vicious pit bull than a cute, cuddly puppy. (figure of speech, pit bulls are no more vicious than other dogs, and definitely less than all humans).

I will stop now, since people can figure out the rest of what I am saying on their own, should they want to.

Love your fellow being, be it a human, an animal, a mosquito, or anything else. Love an idea, a principle, but don't let that make you hate others based on their disagreement with that one single idea. We are not groups, not numbers, not words, not ideas. We are all unique, all of us, trying to understand this world, and everything in it. It's tough, but doable.

Thank you~! I'm so glad you wrote this up~! Although the game looks very fun and entertaining (it looks like that to a girl~!? heaven forbid!), I won't be buying it because of this stunt pulled by EA. I just love how they want to include the 'other' demographic of gamers (even though girls still aren't included in that, sadly), but fail horribly. Ugh. EA sickens me. I just wish Dead Space were until a different company logo.

As a female gamer and game designer, and an ex-EA employee (hey, at least half the game developers in the US have worked for EA at some point in their careers), I have to say your response was made of pure win. Well worded, called them out on their bigotry in addition to the endangering of "costumed representatives", and your suggestions for what they could do with your $240 made me laugh. Well played sir, well played.

Sexism is when you single out or depreciate a certain gender in a negative way. If you think portrayals of sex are negative, then the contest might be borderline immoral to you. However, If you don't, this contest doesn't do anything but praise women for their beauty. Girls who dress up in costume are fetishizing themselves and getting paid for it. The contestants are meant to act stupid for comedy. If you don't like it, then don't wear any costume at comic con and stay home and cry.

The gay guy hates himself and has nothing better to do but to play the victim (hence denying himself a prize) boo hoo. Why did he send it in, but to make fun of himself?? He wishes he was a booth babe; To be an attention whore.

Anyone involved in this contest should know its for fun, there is hardly anything demeaning to any gender but the persons who chose to do so, so just enjoy it.

Well, I certainly know that I am buying the game. It is a game about sin and thus the PR made sense.

It certainly got you to demean yourself and a friend, right?

I won't go too far in this post as I notice that the Bear a ways before me posted pretty much everything I could think of and I applaud him for it. Of course my migraine is making me forget to properly credit other folks who have stated the hypocrisy and the spectacle of free PR you've drummed up is only helping them.

¬_¬
Are we all forgetting that the whole point of boothbabes is exploitation?
I've never been to one of these things, but don't they regularly get photografed anyway? Isn't it part of the job?
Next we're gonna complain that people who work in offices have to know how to use a computer.

I find the "its normal that women are objectified in the game industry" just as idiotic a rationalization as "everybody in my state practices slavery." Just because something occurs with a high freqeuncy does not neccesarily mean that its either right or fair. Some behaviors are wrong no matter how often they occur. Stop using idiot logic to justify the status quo.

And "Nexus"? "The gay guy" definitley doesn't hate himself. Are you sure you're not transferring your loathing on to him?

And as far as "booth babes are teh hawt and therefore ask for it" justification, there's a real difference between getting paid to look hot in a costume for a few hours, and being groped by sweaty fanboys. One is part of the job description, the other? Not at all. Your disconnect here speaks volumes. Do you also suggest that any woman in "suggestive" clothing "has it coming" when she's raped? Fail.

I love you. xD
Straight lady here, and usually I'm hypersensitive to the big-boobed chicks displayed on video games to drooling teenage boys. (God of War I honestly made me twitch with the two ladies in the bed, but, I've since shrugged it off. xD )

I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one feeling this stab to women, gay people, and generally any man who has the self respect and control not to dry-hump the first two attractive women that he's offered..

I fit into the demographic that EA was marketing towards (I'm a heterosexual geek/gamer), and even I think this is a despicable way to move your corporation forward, or do anything for that matter. It's plain disrespectful.

You did a darn good thing both by sending in your submission, and by replying to their "award". This is a very well thought out, well written, from the heart letter with the perfect intent, which is something you don't come by in this day and age. Jolly good show.

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